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Reeva took a deep breath. She could do this. Nick was an lcb. And he missed her. As lcbs went, that was big stuff. She just needed to do what Jaya said and lower her expectations. And do what Lakshmi said and stop projecting her past onto the present. And do what Satya Auntie said and fully accept her reality. Easy.
CHAPTER 13
Day 7
For once, allthree sisters were speechless. They were standing in a private room of the local funeral parlor next to an open casket. Their father was inside. His skin was pale and anemic looking. His eyes were shut, his eyelids papery and thin, and there was gray stubble growing on his cheeks. His dad bod was hidden in a graying white T-shirt and checked M&S pajama bottoms—the outfit he’d been asleep in when he died. It was hard to imagine what he would have looked like when he was alive, but Reeva guessed he wouldn’t have caused heads to turn in the street. He looked... ordinary. The one quality she’d always wanted in a parent.
“I can’t tell if he looks so much older than Mum because he’s dead or because she’s had so much work done,” said Jaya. “Do you think she’d be as wrinkly as Dad without all the Botox?”
Sita shrugged. “Probably. But then again, she spends a fortune on her face creams. All I found in Dad’s bathroom cabinet was E45 cream.”
“If only I’d known, I could have given him some Crème de la Mer,” said Jaya sadly. “I have so many samples.”
“Uh, I’ll take them,” said Sita. “Why do you never give me your free shit?”
“Because you make fun of my job about five times a day.”
Sita nodded. “Fair point.”
“Don’t you think he looks like he would have been a nice person?” asked Reeva, who’d been staring intently at their dad. “I know he’s dead and all, but his energy seems so calm.”
“Hundy-p,” Jaya said, nodding. “Serious Zen vibes.”
Sita shook her head. “You’ve both lost it. You can’t get vibes from a corpse. And I thought we all agreed Dad was difficult to live with too.”
“Yeah, when he lived with Mum,” said Jaya. “Which is obvious. MJ’s probably in therapy right now.”
“All I’m saying is that I think he would have been a good dad,” said Reeva. She couldn’t stop gazing at his face. “A really good dad.”
“Me too,” said Jaya. “Even if he did cheat. Or attack Mum’s lover.”
“Yeah, whatever he did, I’m sure he would have been better than Mum,” conceded Sita.
“We need to do this, don’t we?” said Reeva. “Get him ready.”
Sita nodded grimly. “Who wants to pull his trousers off? I bet you a fiver he’s not wearing boxers.”
—
Unfortunately, Sita wonher £5. The sisters had shrieked so loudly in the process of uncovering this that the undertaker had rushed in, assuming the body had fallen out of the casket. “Ithappened once,” he’d told them. “Almost killed the poor wife when her dead husband fell on top of her.”
Their father was now lying in the coffin wearing a pair of boxers with a white shirt.
“I can do the buttons,” offered Reeva. “If you guys want to put the trousers on him?”
Jaya shook her head quickly. “I was standing by his waist when we took the pajama trousers off.”
“I lifted the boxers all the way to the top,” said Sita.
Reeva sighed. “Fine. But help me, okay? Jaya, if you grab that leg, no, the right one, okay cool. And I’ll slide these on...” She awkwardly maneuvered his right leg into one side of the black trousers. “Sita, can you...?”
Sita reluctantly helped her shove the other leg into the other side. “This is fucking hard,” she grunted. “Why does no one talk about this?”
“I can’t believe the undertaker isn’t doing it,” complained Jaya. “I’d definitely pay extra for this.”
“We opted out of that service,” said Reeva.
Both her sisters turned to her in shock. “What?” cried Jaya. “Why?!”
